Ava Landry
My Experience
I had the opportunity to participate in a Mechanical Engineering Co-Op with Salas O'Brien Engineers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. During my co-op, I worked in the Plumbing Department to assist the team in creating plumbing designs for commercial spaces. I knew nothing about plumbing or pipe design before I began the co-op, so this was a huge opportunity for me to learn!
Pipe Layout
I was assigned several smaller-scale projects and was able to assist our plumbing designers on larger projects. I mostly focused on utilizing Revit to create pipe layouts on architectural drawings. I was in charge of efficiently and safely placing sewer, water, vent, and specialty piping, as well as plumbing fixtures, in commercial spaces. By the end of the summer, I successfully completed 4 major projects on my own.
Pipe & Heater Sizing
For each section of pipe in a space, I would have to accurately size it for fluids and solids to flow through. This sizing would depend on number of fixtures and location in the building. I also sized water heaters based on number of fixtures and type of building. I began performing these processes by hand to learn the basics, then utilized a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet to perform the sizing.
Plumbing Specification Compliance
For each project, I utilized plumbing code and company documents to write engineering specifications and plumbing fixtures. These would inform our architects of our recommended fixtures for the space and relevant safety information. I also spent a lot of time reading the International Plumbing Code (IPC) and researching the information. This provided so many industry terms and a wealth of plumbing knowledge.
HVAC and Electrical Collaboration
Our engineering firm provided all MEP engineering drawings for commercial spaces. In order to place our equipment in a way that would work within a building, I would often have to collaborate with our HVAC and Electrical teams to make sure that our designs worked as a unit. They also would provide certain information for heater selection.
